8 Must-Use Techniques to Slay Your Stress

Stress is probably humanity’s most notorious yet silent killer. Stress is one of the primary factors for many of the world’s most fatal medical conditions such as diabetes, heart problems and even cancer. In this article, we’ll talk about 8 stress management techniques that really work to “slay your stress”. Individually, they can do a […]

Stress
is probably humanity’s most notorious yet silent killer. Stress is one of the
primary factors for many of the world’s most fatal medical conditions such as
diabetes, heart problems and even cancer. In this article, we’ll talk about 8
stress management techniques that really work to “slay your stress”.

Individually,
they can do a lot to help you minimize the effects of bad stress in your life,
but utilized collectively, they can provide you a much greater, synergistic
stress management protocol.

Stress Management
Technique #1: Know your priorities

The
biggest source of stress for most people is over-commitment. If having too much
to do is the problem, the solution is to choose your battles wisely and
strategically. Obviously, this technique demands clarity regarding what you
really believe are the most important things in your life.

If you don’t have a clearly demarcated set of
values and priorities that you can use to guide your daily decisions, then your
first assignment is to come up with a list. The list can be long or short,
broad or specific. You just need the list. When you know what your priorities
are, it’s easy to limit the responsibilities or tasks that you choose to put on
your plate.

One
of the best ways to be able to identify one’s priorities is to discover one’s
life purpose – one’s personal mission and vision. Two resources I can recommend
on this topic are: “The Purpose-Driven Life” by Rick Warren and this
Ted talk by Simon Sinek.
Both can serve as great guides in this discovery process.

Stress Management Technique #2: The Pareto
Principle

In
case you’re not familiar with the Pareto
Principle, it’s a time
management principle that maximizes productivity by focusing only on the most
productive tasks or responsibilities. In particular, the Pareto Principle is
also referred to as the 80/20 Rule, which states that for optimal productivity,
you must put most of your resources (time, effort, money) into the 20% of
activities that produce 80% of your results. What does this mean?

For
example, I have 100 clients that provide my business with annual revenue of
$100,000. My top 15 clients provide 70% of my annual business revenue. If I
were to embark on a marketing campaign to get more sales, I should focus on
those 15 instead of all of the other 85 clients.

Why?
If my top 15 clients are able to give me an average of $4,600 annually, it
means they have the budget to buy more compared to the remaining 85 clients
that each only bring in an average of $353 dollars in revenue annually. If they
can only bring in that much revenue, it means that’s all they can probably
afford, which means I’ll probably be wasting my time on them.

Now
how does this relate to stress management? Remember how having so much to do on
a regular basis can leave you feeling overwhelmed? The Pareto Principle is a
very good way to sift through the many things you feel you need to do, and
determine which of those should demand your focus.

Naturally,
these should be the tasks that will contribute the most to your personal
productivity. In other words, the Pareto Principle can help you get more things
done with less time and effort. And that’s a very good way to minimize your
stress levels.

Stress Management Technique #3: Just say “No”

Another
major contributor to having too much on one’s plate and feeling chronically
overwhelmed is being a “yes” person. There’s nothing inherently wrong with
saying yes to people’s requests and favors asked. What makes it wrong is when
you feel you have to say “yes” to everyone, all the time.

If
you give in to this temptation, something will eventually have to give. If you don’t
learn how to say no to
things that are unnecessary or unrelated to your real priorities, then you will
be chronically overwhelmed, and your stress levels will always be high.

To
learn how to say no to requests and favors asked that aren’t really important
or aligned with your priorities, you’ll have to first be comfortable with
putting your foot down and disappointing people.

The
irony being a “people pleaser” is that you will never really get to please
everybody! Think of it this way, if you try to be a “yes” person to everybody,
some will think of you in a favorable light as someone who is helpful and
responsible, while others will see you as a weak, spineless, “yes man/woman”.
Harsh? Maybe. True? Definitely.

For
what it’s worth, you should know that I struggle with this one daily. My
default mechanism is to say “yes” to absolutely everything. But, it’s a
misguided mechanism at best, and a destructive one at worst. It’s crucial to
get a handle on this habit by focusing in sharply on your key life priorities
(Principle #1), and using those to dictate your ability to say “No” when it’s
appropriate.

Stress Management Technique #4: Take baby steps

Another
major stress factor for many people is the tendency to rush things, especially
significant milestones that demand more time to complete.

Take, for example, getting promoted to manager
from an entry-level position. A person may be too impatient to wait for a few
years to do so, which makes him or her take on an excessive number of
responsibilities and tasks in the office. This excess of responsibility taken
on too quickly leads to overwhelm, and overwhelm causes stress to skyrocket.

It’s
a similar scenario for many people with weight loss.

Since
most diets today make hyperbolic “lose as much as 100 pounds in 4 weeks” claims
as their unique selling propositions, many obese people think that losing 2
pounds a week at most (the established healthy rate of weight loss) is abnormal
or a “loser” way of trimming down.

Therefore,
they go on severely restrictive diets that not only put a lot of strain on
their willpower (increasing stress), but also set them up to gain back the
weight they lose and a little more. This process is one continuous stress
cycle.

So,
while it’s important to have lofty goals in life, it’s not beneficial to rush
them at the expense of your mental stability. Take smaller, more calculated
steps, and accumulate more victories rather than going for a shotgun approach.

With
smaller steps and more victories, you won’t feel as stressed, and you’ll be
more energized and encouraged as you accumulate more and more little victories
along the way.

Stress Management Technique #5: Be excellent, NOT
perfect

To
succeed in life, you have to be excellent at what you do. To fail immediately,
you should aim for perfection. The former will give you more and more success
in life, which can substantially reduce your stress levels, while the latter
will make you more and more disgruntled with life and in the process, magnify
your stress levels.

Why
is perfectionism a surefire formula for high stress? Perfectionism is a myth,
and “perfect” doesn’t exist. The more you try to chase something unattainable,
the more you’re asking for chronic disappointment and discontent in your life.
And, naturally chronic discontent and disappointment will assure chronically
high-stress levels!

What
then is the difference between excellence and perfection? Excellence is doing
the things you do to the best of your ability with constant effort toward
improvement. Perfection, on the other hand, allows no room for mistakes, errors
or shortcomings.

With
excellence, you can deliver the highest quality results but still allow room
for continued growth, which is fine for as long as those errors aren’t serious
and frequent in nature. Simply make it a habit to strive for excellence, and
make perfection the summit you’re aiming for as you climb.

Not
only will you do yourself the favor of significantly reducing your stress, but
you’ll also be able to enjoy sustainably higher levels of personal productivity
and success.

Stress Management Technique #6: Breathe properly

The
next time you’re stressed, I want you to pay attention to both your heart rate
and your breathing. You’ll find that compared to when you’re relaxed, your
breathing is shallow and your heart rate much faster when you’re feeling
stressed.

With
that knowledge in mind, a very practical solution for when you’re already
feeling stressed is to de-stress yourself through proper breathing.

When
you consciously take slow, deep breaths, you are able to actively slow your
heart rate. And when you slow down your heart rate, you signal to your mind
that it can be more relaxed in regards to the situation. It settles you down.
It makes you calm down.

A
very good breathing technique is one I learned from Mark Divine, author of “The
Way of The SEAL.” He calls it the Box
Breathing technique, because
of the equal number of seconds involved in each of the 4 phases of this
breathing technique.

He
recommends taking a slow, deep breath for 5 seconds, holding it in for 5
seconds, gradually exhaling all that breath for 5 seconds, and finally holding
the exhale for another 5 seconds before repeating the cycle for at least 4 to 5
times. I have tried this myself, particularly doing 10 minutes each morning, as
well as when I’m driving, and I’ve found it to be a very effective way to
manage and even lower my stress levels.

Stress Management Technique #7: Prayer/ Gratitude/ Meditation

Ok, so this is three for the
price of one! I personally use prayer and gratitude (thanksgiving) for this
purpose, but I’ve included meditation as well because I know many people get
great benefits from its practice.

Each of these three practices or
any combination of the three are helpful
in stress management primarily because they allow us to take the focus off of
ourselves and channeled on to something outside of ourselves. It seems to me
that our pride and ego often get the upper hand, and we allow that inherently
human characteristic of self-obsession to overwhelm us.

Prayer allows us to focus on God
and be in communion with Him, thus eliminating our self-focus. Gratitude allows
us to focus on the countless undeserved blessings we have to be thankful for in
our lives, which can’t help but bring us joy and renewed vitality.

I personally try to incorporate
gratitude into these times of prayer, but I know many people have had great
success keeping a daily “Gratitude Journal” for this same purpose. Gratitude
journaling is personal, and can be done however you prefer.

If you happen to be interested in a more
formal guided gratitude journaling process, you can incorporate something
called “The Five-Minute Journal” into your daily routine. I got one for
Christmas, and it’s been very helpful when I’ve been disciplined enough to use
it.

Finally,
meditation is a practice with great merit as well. Some of you may be unfamiliar with the process of
meditation, and may be asking: “How do you meditate?” Well, I had the same
question, so here are the basics: Just sit comfortably straight with the eyes
closed and for 10 minutes a day, breathe normally through your nose, and just
focus on one word – a mantra if you will – like “om’ or “aum.”

The mantra will serve as your focus anchor
point and will help you to naturally dismiss all other thoughts. Incorporate
any or all of these techniques regularly and you will develop a strong ability
to focus on the right thoughts at will during stressful situations.

Stress Management Technique #8: Exercise

Finally,
you can manage your stress levels by getting enough regular exercise. The right
kind of exercises done regularly can help you sleep more soundly at night (more
energizing sleep) and increase your physical energy during the day.

In
particular, cardiovascular exercise done with moderate intensity for 20 minutes
every day can do wonders for you in terms of having more energy throughout the
day. When you feel like you have more energy left in your tank, you’ll feel
less stressed!

Exercise
also produces endorphins-natural painkilling chemicals produced in the
brain-and also improves the body’s ability to obtain restful sleep, which in
turn reduces stress.

One
final note on exercise worth mentioning relates to cognitive function. Since
your ability to handle stress effectively is ultimately reliant upon your
brain’s capacity to function at an optimal level, it stands to reason that
increasing brain function will decrease stress. One key hormone that is impacted
by physical exercise is called Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF).

BDNF
acts on certain neurons in the central nervous system and the peripheral
nervous system helping to promote the longevity of existing neurons, while
encouraging the growth and differentiation of new neurons and synapses (nerve
connections).

Certain
types of physical exercise have been shown to promote a threefold increase in
BDNF synthesis, thereby increasing cognitive function and neurogenesis.

On top of that, it’s also been shown that
consistent exercise over several months produces significant increases in both
general cognitive functioning and overall volume of gray matter!!

Conclusion

And
there you have it, 8 Crucial Techniques to Slay Your Stress. As mentioned at
the start of this article, I highly recommend that you incorporate multiple, if
not all, techniques to get a synergistic effect that will allow you to manage
your stress levels more optimally.

But
if it’ll just “stress you out” then start by applying technique number 4,
“taking baby steps”. Choose one technique first and as you become familiar with
it, add additional techniques, until you’re able to apply most, if not all of
them.

The
important thing is to ACT on what you learned immediately in order to maximize
your chances of applying these techniques and substantially reducing your
levels of unhealthy stress!

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Try These 10 Techniques the Next Time You’re Stressed Out

Stress Management: The Basics

“People look for retreats for themselves, in the country, by the coast, or in the hills . . . There is nowhere that a person can find a more peaceful and trouble-free retreat than in his own mind. . . . So constantly give yourself this retreat, and renew yourself.”